Chapter Five #2
Despite the fact that Elise was still studying me intently and not with the kind of interest I was hoping to elicit from her, I said, “Well, since you seem to be more of an expert than I am when it comes to rocks, want to help me find something worth making into a piece of jewelry?”
She didn’t answer right away.
Instead, she looked down at the ground between us, scanning it the same way she had a second ago. “I don’t know what you consider worth it,” she said finally.
“That’s because we haven’t found it yet.”
That got the smallest shift out of her. She almost smiled.
“Fine,” she said. “Would you like my advice?”
I let out a short laugh. “Sure, I take direction well.”
My attempt at flirting went right over her head.
She stepped a little closer to me, not quite touching, but close enough that I could feel the heat of her through the desert air. She nudged a cluster of rocks with the toe of her sneaker. “You’re looking at color first,” she said. “You should be looking at structure.”
“Structure,” I repeated.
She crouched again and motioned me down with her. “See this?” She tapped a larger, dull piece that looked like every other rock we’d stepped over. “This isn’t random. The way it split reveals there’s a seam running through it.”
I leaned in, bracing one hand on the ground beside her. “That just looks like a rock that lost a fight.”
“It did,” she said. “A long time ago.”
I huffed a quiet laugh. “Okay. What am I missing?”
She gave the surface a light mist.
At first, nothing.
Then, slowly, something darker showed through beneath the dust. Not the bright blue I’d been chasing. Deeper. Richer.
“Don’t hit it from the top,” she said. “Angle it. You’ll follow the seam instead of breaking through it.”
I picked up the hammer and shifted the way she’d shown me. There is nothing sexier than an intelligent woman. Okay, a naked intelligent one. Not just anyone. This one.
When I imagined this outing, I never took into consideration how uncomfortable a hard-on could be when I’m squatting and pretending to care about rocks. I shook my head to help myself refocus. “Like this?”
“Lower.”
I adjusted as discreetly as I could.
Thankfully her attention was focused on the rock she was misting, dusting, pursing those beautiful lips of hers as she blew on it. “Closer.”
I wanted to be.
I moved in another inch. Our shoulders brushed this time. Neither of us moved away.
“Now,” she said.
I tapped.
The sound was different. Crisper.
A small fracture line spread across the surface.
We both stilled.
“Again,” she said, quieter now.
She knows what she wants. That’s hot.
I tapped a second time.
The rock split. “Well, look at that,” I said under my breath. The dull brown gave way to something brighter. Not just blue, but a rich, clear blue with thin dark lines, like cracks that had been filled in instead of broken apart. “This looks promising.”
Elise leaned in closer, seeming to not realize how that removed more of the distance between our bodies. I could smell the light scent of her shampoo, feel the heat of her. The temptation to cup the back of her neck and bring her mouth to mine was intense.
She picked up the stone we’d revealed and turned it slightly so the light hit it better. The blue deepened. The darker lines sharpened, spreading across it in a web that made it look almost intentional.
“Turquoise,” she said finally. “But this one is a keeper.”
“How do you know?” I asked, needing to keep her talking and beside me.
She held it out before me. “That pattern?” She traced one of the thin lines with her finger and my breath caught in my throat. “That’s matrix. It forms when the copper settles into the rock instead of replacing it completely.” A small pause. “It’s what makes pieces like this rare.”
Rare. Like how feeling this drawn to a woman I’d just met was. I wasn’t bad looking and my last name carried weight, especially in Boston, which meant I was used to female attention and more of it than I was often comfortable with.
Too much, too often, left me feeling more cornered than lucky.
Looking back, it had been the lack of pressure from Nora that had been the most attractive part of being with her. With her, I’d been able to relax and be myself. What had been missing was a desire for more.
All it took was a look from Elise and my heart started racing. The way she moved her hands over the stone sent my thoughts skittering in directions they had no business going in the middle of the desert with kids racing around us.
Wanting a woman was a familiar sensation.
To this level? So much that I ached? That was new.
And I liked it.
“Rare is good,” I said in a thick voice.
She hesitated, then quietly answered, “Yes,” and straightened.
I groaned and did as well.
The voices of the family I’d come with were a constant background noise, keeping me tethered to the reality that we weren’t alone.
“Look at this one,” one of the kids said.
“That’s insane,” Bruce answered.
“Where did you find that?”
“Right here. No, not there. Over here.”
Elise and I walked away from the group together. We stopped, looked at potential finds, then kept walking. I handed her some pieces to look at. Pointing out seams. Loving the time she spent evaluating each before stating her opinion.
She was confident, but not without proving her merit to be. I remembered how tentatively she’d entered the garage and the way she’d dropped her purse as if testing whether or not I would pick it up. Trust didn’t come easy to her and I was okay with that.
It made me want to know her better.
Possibly show her that not everyone requires evidence of someone’s value before appreciating them.
My mother joked that I was born without whatever gene made people judgmental.
I disagreed. What I didn’t do was rush to form an opinion.
Time revealed the true character of a person better than any interrogation ever could.
Okay, and I do genuinely enjoy most people, but I don’t see that as a fault.
Elise picked up another rock. Turned it in her hand before deeming it not worth holding onto.
“How are you so good at this?” I asked.
“I’ve seen these rocks my whole life.”
My eyebrows rose. “So, you grew up in Basin Ridge?”
She froze, looked away, then bent to study another rock. “Why are you so interested in what happened between your father and that . . . what was his name? Steele guy?”
I smiled. She did care. “It’s a long story. Would you like to hear it over dinner? Tonight?”
She straightened and pinned me with those intense eyes of hers. “No.”
Oouf. Her answer was so blunt I laughed before trying to cover it with a cough. “Okay.”
“That’s not why I’m here.”
I nodded slowly, oddly liking her more. “Understood.”
“I run in this area all the time.”
I nodded.
She continued, “It would have been rude to pretend I didn’t see you.”
“I’m glad you stopped.”
“I didn’t do it to make you happy.”
I bit back a smile. “That doesn’t change how I feel.”
She slow-blinked at that. “I’m not interested in going on a date with you, but I am curious about why you’re in Basin Ridge.”
Wow, she’s blunt.
Painfully so.